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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Laetrile: Everything old is new again, or at least Eric Merola hopes so

Remember our old buddy Eric Merola? He’s the guy who made two—count ’em—two crappy, conspiracy-laden, misinformation-ridden, astonishingly bad bits of “great man” propaganda disguised as documentaries about a Houston cancer doctor peddling unproven cancer treatments and charging his patients tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars for the privilege of being under his care […]

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Announcements Blog housekeeping Medicine

The “I need a day off from blogging” blog post

The title says it all. I was too beat last night after a hard day in the OR to get the Tarial cells fired up to produce a daily dose of the Insolence you all know and love (or, if you’re an antivaccinationist or quack, hate). It happens occasionally, but, fortunately for the universe. not […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

The Alliance for Natural Health says that as though it were a bad thing…

The vast majority of what is known as “alternative medicine” is quackery. Let’s just get that right out front right from the very beginning of this post. That’s where I’m coming from, and where I’m coming from is a science- and evidence-based viewpoint. To quote a cliche that is true and modified to my own […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine

The Canadian Breast Screening Study attacked: Why do doctors have such a hard time with the concept of overdiagnosis?

The last couple of weeks, I’ve made allusions to the “Bat Signal” (or, as I called it, the “Cancer Signal,” although that’s a horrible name and I need to think of a better one). Basically, when Bat Cancer Signal goes up (hey, I like that one better, but do bats get cancer?), it means that […]

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Cancer Medicine Politics

The Texas Medical Board goes after abortion providers, but Stanislaw Burzynski practices untouched for decades

Regular readers know my frustration with the Texas Medical Board. Why is it, I’ve often wondered, that Stanislaw Burzynski can keep peddling his unproven cancer treatment with seeming impunity for nearly four decades, with every attempt of the TMB over the last four decades seemingly being utterly ineffective? It’s not as though Burzynski is alone. […]